CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF EU POLICY ON MULTIFUNCTIONAL LAND USE ACTIVITIES ON NATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVEL
(Review of EU policies in agriculture, forestry, tourism and environment)
EU POLICIES
Enlargement Policy (Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance- IPA)
CROATIA (Ramona Franic, AFSZ)
Croatia is in the process of becoming a member of the European Union. Part of the accession process is related to Chapter 21 of the Acquis, which deals with regional policy and more specifically to the preparation for Structural Funds. To prepare Candidate Countries for the Structural Funds, the EU has introduced the Instrument for Pre-Accession, which in Croatia started in 2007.
Objectives and areas of assistance
The Program is conducted through the five components:
1. Assistance in transition and building capacities – supports activities aimed on building and strengthening institutional framework for adopting and implementation the acquis communautaire of the EU. Potential beneficiaries of the component 1 are state administrative bodies, public bodies, NGOs, business community and other non-profit organizations.
2. Cross-border cooperation – supports activities connected with cross-border cooperation with member-states and states using the IPA program, and are based on long-term program of cross-border cooperation. Potential beneficiaries of the component 2 are cross-border regions, i.e. counties by continental and sea Croatian borders.
3. Regional development – support for infrastructural projects in sectors of environment protection and traffic, as well as for programs of support to competitiveness and regional development; this component is continuation of the ISPA program and component of economic and social cohesion of the Phare program. Potential beneficiaries of the component 3 are state administration bodies, public and scientific institutions and business community.
4. Development of human capacities – supports measures towards employment, education and training support, as well as social inclusion, financing projects in the field of social cohesion with the purpose of achieving goals of the European employment strategy. Potential beneficiaries for the component 4 are the public administration bodies, public institutions, social partners and non-governmental organizations/associations.
5. Rural development – as a continuation of SAPARD program, this component supports preparing activities for participation in the Common Agricultural Policy and rural development. Potential users are local administration units, agricultural holdings/farms, and other business entities, depending on priority measures.
The IPARD measures will complement the implementation of the National Agricultural and Fishery Strategy. Based on Act of State Aid for Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry, Croatian Government supports development of agricultural sector and rural areas through national support schemes. National support is focused on wide range of beneficiaries (farmers, non-commercial producers, local self-government, associations and cooperatives, etc.) and wide range of investments. On the other hand, IPARD funds are targeted to limited number of sectors, eligible investments and final beneficiaries. They are focused at viable producers, with clear priority objective to support them in upgrading to Community standards and facilitate their competitiveness. National schemes and IPARD funds in that way complement each other by providing necessary support to different beneficiaries with division of objectives.
The IPARD assistance will also contribute to a sustainable and social coherent rural development process consistent with international environmental practices by developing the rural economy, enhancing income and providing and securing employment opportunities in the rural areas to counterbalance disparities between regions and compared to urban areas, as well as to develop and rehabilitee basic rural infrastructure, also in war effected areas. Therefore, one specific objective per priority area has been defined and will be made operational through corresponding measures:
Priority / Specific Objective / Corresponding Measure1. Improving market efficiency and implementation of Community standards / Strengthening and improvement of the agricultural production and market capacity / Investments in agricultural holdings to restructure and to upgrade to Community standards
Investments in the processing and marketing of agriculture and fishery products to restructure those activities and to upgrade them to Community standards
2. Preparatory actions for implementation of the Agri-environmental measures and local rural development strategies / Strengthening and improvement of the capacity for implementation of obligatory pilot project in Agri – environment and Leader based approach / Actions to improve the environment and the countryside
Preparation and implementation of local rural development strategies
3. Development of the rural economy / Creating better living conditions in rural areas by improving rural infrastructures and promoting business activities / Improvement and development of rural Infrastructure
Diversification and development of rural economic activities
Supportive measure: Technical assistance, information and publicity campaigns
Principles of Assistance
Local development support is based on principles of sustainable development and in Croatia is realized through co-financing of the Program of global development of particular local administration units. The principal goal of this program is building institutional capacities via support to local administration units for planning, co-operation and partnership with entrepreneurs and civil society, making grounds for joint work on future projects.
Participation of local population and groups interested in policy creation is still weak in Croatia. To ensure progress and prosperity of local initiatives, support to local communities is of great importance. Besides its contribution in preventing depopulation of rural areas and increasing quality and attractiveness of local rural communities, significant contribution is expected in building social and human capacities in rural activities. Those activities contribute to a so-called 'autonomy principle', indicating responsibilities and decisions transferred to a local level.
Regarding agricultural production and processing, Croatia still has no minimal obligatory standards that regulate grounds for good agricultural practice. The Code of best agricultural practice is still developing, taking into consideration conditions applicable to EU member states as stated in Article 39 of the Council Regulation No. 1698/2005 for rural development.
Business entities in food production, processing and distribution under the regulation 852/2004 are primarily responsible for food safety and required to continuously keep and monitor procedures and activities based on HACCP principles in each stage of production, processing and distribution of food after primary production. Due to the Food law, food business entities have to realize HACCP principles up till January 2009, expect export plants that already apply their own checking (control) on the basis of HACCP principles.
Concretely for the IPARD program, using finances within each component is based on long-term program documents, so-called Action programs (long-term program of cross-border cooperation, long term program for sectors of traffic, environment and regional competitiveness, operational program for development of human capacities). Specifically for sectors of agriculture and rural development, the Plan for agriculture and rural development 2007-2013 is adopted, which sets ground criteria of using means from IPA program, within component 5 – rural development.
Common eligibility criteria for measures within IPARD programme are:
· The investment must concern the production of agricultural products covered by the Annex I to the Treaty,
· Investment must comply with relevant Community standards as specified by Article 170(1) of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 718/2007 at the end of its realisation,
· Agricultural holding must comply with relevant national minimum standards regarding environmental protection, public health, animal and plant health, animal welfare and occupational safety at the time when the decision to grant support is taken.
· A prior assessment from environmental and veterinary national authorities on project must be submitted together with the project/business plan. For project of certain size an Environmental Impact Assessment is to be carried out prior to investment according to the Act on Assessment of the Impact on the Environment (compliant with EU directives 85/337/EEC and 97/11/EC, including Annex I and II),
· The agricultural holding must demonstrate (in the business plan) economic viability at the end of the realization of the investment,
· A business plan must be made according to the standard requirements of banks for investments. If the main objective of the investment is increase of production, the existing of a market must also be demonstrated in the business plan.
· Agricultural holding must not have any outstanding liabilities against the State at the moment of applying.
· Integrated production (primary production and processing) in milk, beef, pig, poultry and egg sector is not eligible for investments under this measure.
Some criteria are applied regarding occupational skills and competence, according to agriculture holdings. Regarding specific eligibility criteria, they are defined by sectors:
· Livestock production sector: all agricultural holdings must demonstrate that manure management is in compliance with the Community standards at the end of the investment;
· Fruit and vegetables sector: greenhouses (covered by glass or plastic) must have a minimum size of 500 m2 and maximum size 2,000 m2 and agricultural holding must demonstrate the existence of own production of vegetables, by registered production in the Register of Agricultural Holdings at the end of the investment
· Cereals and oil crops sector: investment in storage and drying facilities must be at least. 100 t up to 1.000 t capacity; agricultural holding must demonstrate existence of own production of grains and/or oil seeds, by registered production in the Register of Agricultural Holdings of at least 20 ha of grains and/or oil seeds at the beginning of the investment.
Moreover, priority will be given to investments into new objects, taken by young farmers, taken by ecological producers and realized in less favoured areas.
Regarding the measures based on Leader approach, the LAGs selected must in all cases cover territories with sufficient coherence and critical mass in terms of human, financial and economic resources to support a viable development strategy. A LAG shall be an officially registered association based on means of a valid Act on Associations or other appropriate form within the Croatian legal framework.
Beneficiaries
Measures under priority 1
Final beneficiaries of this measure are agricultural holdings (family farms, crafts and legal entities) defined by Act on Agriculture, registered in the Register of Agricultural Holdings and VAT payers.
Measures under priority 2
Final beneficiaries shall be: individual farmers, agricultural co-operatives, agricultural enterprises, NGOs and public institutions which own and/or lease land in the pilot areas. Each beneficiary shall attend a training programme of 15 hours. A certificate of attendance of the obligatory training course will be issued by the training institution.
Beneficiaries under the measures based on Leader approach are rural population organized through LAGs. The LEADER approach covers the rural areas of Croatia.
Measures under priority 3
Final beneficiaries of this measure are local self-government units: municipalities and cities with up to 10.000 inhabitants according to Census 2001.
IMPLEMENTATION OF EU POLICIES ON NATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVEL
CROATIA (Ramona Franic, AFSZ)
Implementation of EU policies on national level
Review of existing programs (Operational Programs, strategic documents (i.e. National Referent Framework, National Plan for Development, National Plan for Development of Rural Areas, etc), strategies, plans, with a cross-focus on agriculture, forestry tourism and environment
Objectives, priorities, measures
The fundamental principles of the cooperation between EU and Croatian agribusiness and rural stakeholders are the encouragement of sustainable rural development and the development of forestry, as well as harmonisation of veterinary and phytosanitary legislation, production and business principles. That is why Croatian policymakers put those principles into domestic strategic and operational documents for more than a decade now.
First strategic documents (Strategy of agriculture and fishery of the Republic of Croatia, 2002; Action plan for agriculture and rural areas 2003-2005) in their development priorities and objectives gave priority to agriculture as a sector that has to achieve increased productivity and competitiveness mostly by measures of structural reform. These objectives were included in several Operational plans (for development of: i) cattle production, ii) pig production, iii) vegetable production and iv) establishment of permanent crops plantations).
However, in those documents it was anticipated the development of rural areas as well, giving guidelines for improvements in agricultural structure, financing agriculture, organizing agricultural markets, protection and preserving cultural heritage, sustainable use of natural resources and harmonized regional development.
Considering unfavourable structure of agricultural holdings in the Republic of Croatia (small-size and fragmented family farms with old family members prevailing, weak educational structure of farmers, rarely populated rural areas, lacks in rural infrastructure, inefficient agro-combinats, insufficient development of food-processing industry etc.), the most stressed agricultural policy priorities and objectives were to encourage changes in structural policy through the agricultural land policy, rural development, increasing the size (enlargement) of the family farms, diversification of farm activities, increase the level of farm competitiveness, development of producers' organization etc.
During the past period a lot of activities and projects were conducted in the field of agriculture and rural development with the main objective of improvement of their structure and competitiveness. Until the agricultural policy reform from 2003 there was no clear distinction between market-price policy and rural development policy. Also there was no policy programming as in the EU. The 2003 reform created for the first time new models of support in agriculture, and rural development became one of the key issues of agricultural (or rural) policy.
Therefore the Action plan for agriculture and rural areas 2003-2005 elaborated measures for improvements the farm structure through the investments into farms and especially through the increased support for less-favoured areas. Regarding environment, measures for sustainable agricultural practice and controlled agricultural land use were suggested. Through the measures of rural employment and education and measures for more efficient farmers' co-operation and more active engagement of local population, it was tried to achieve the increased motivation and consciousness of local communities about their own responsibility for their development. It was also stressed the need for more balanced development of rural areas taking into consideration their regional characteristics.
The recent Action plan for agriculture and rural areas 2006-2008 has kept the priorities and objectives as determined in previous documents. Besides objectives of the market-price policies (agricultural competitiveness, stabilisation of agricultural market, prices and income and adjustments to the CMOs), more emphasis was given to the objectives of